CMLL removed all references to British Night from their website, and made no mention of the heavily promoted themed night at any time during their show. There has been no explanation from their side as to what happened and it does not seem like one is coming. The only halfway acknowledgement something different was supposed to happen on this show as Sombra still getting the trophy after beating Ultimo Guerrero while avoiding all explanation of why he would be getting a trophy after what was now billed as a singles match. I guess they couldn’t return it.

Maybe they’ll be donating it elsewhere, maybe CMLL is actually totally in the right here, but they’ve acted in such a way to suggest they’re completely at fault. It’s just a dumb way to go about thing. This one is so bad that it’s tough to brush off as just an upper management problem. When a charity accuses you of trying to rip them off, everyone – management, luchadors, announcers, security, anyone who works for the promotion – is stained by the accusation.

To be fair, no one else is mentioning this situation either; I haven’t seen a single news article mentioning the JLD management & UK Embassy pulling out of the show, even from outlets which aren’t on good terms with CMLL. I’m uncertain if that’s pressure CMLL is putting out not to report on this (that does seem to be a few of the cases), or an indication of how low the level of interest is in CMLL.

This is a good lineup for an average – every match could be good and a couple could be great – but I’m finding it tough to be enthused by CMLL at this moment. It’s not that exciting for a year end show.

Tonga has the tag title defense on Tuesday and this Copa final on Friday, which is usually the sign of a NJPW losing his last couple of big matches before leaving town. Of course, we though that about a month ago and Tonga won both that time.